dren is one of the very few institutions of a charitable character in the State, which have offered any serious objection to inspection by the Board's representatives or have refused to render to the Board a detailed report of receipts and expenditures as the statute requires. This society was organized on or about April 27, 1875, under the provisions of chapter 130 of the laws of that year, its expressed objects being the prevention of cruelty to children and the enforcement of laws affecting them. That the prosecution of this important philanthropic work has been productive of beneficent results there is no room to doubt.

The society occupies a large and well equipped building at the corner of Twenty-third street and Fourth avenue in New York city, where it annually shelters, feeds, clothes and otherwise administers to the necessities of a large number of unfortunate children who have been rescued from unfavorable surroundings or have been temporarily committed to its care by the courts. Its expenditures for this particular branch of work during the year 1897, as stated in its printed report covering the operations of that year amounted to the sum of $10,890.39, which is reported as having been received from the benevolent for the purposes in dicated.

To the ordinary mind, having no inclination to seek refuge in technicalities, work, such as this, would seem to be of a decidedly "charitable character," and the mere fact of its prosecution would seem to supply all the evidence necessary to show that the society in question is of the kind that the Constitution and the statutes contemplated placing under the jurisdiction of this Board. Further than this, however, the society's officers and attorneys have at various times, for the purpose of obtaining donations or to secure exemption from taxation, alleged, even under oath where

necessary, that it was a charity. It is, moreover, entirely supported by public funds from the city of New York and the gifts of the charitable.

Under these circumstances the Board was obliged to take cognizance of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, as an institution carrying on work within the Board's jurisdiction, and upon the refusal of the society's president and its superintendent to permit of an official inspection by the Board's representatives and also to render the financial report requested, the Hon. Theodore E. Hancock, Attorney-General of the State and the Board's legal adviser, was requested to take the legal proceedings provided by the statute, in order that the Board's rights and duties in the premises might be settled by competent judicial authority.

The Attorney-General accordingly brought an action in the Supreme Court for a writ of peremptory mandamus directing the society to permit the Board to visit and inspect its grounds, buildings, and papers and to exercise the visitorial powers specified in the Constitution and the law. This motion was argued before Mr. Justice Giegerich at special term in the first judicial district, the Attorney-General appearing in person for the Board, while the society was represented by President Elbridge T. Gerry and Mr. Delancey Nicoll. In October, Justice Giegerich handed down a decision sustaining the Board's contention in the following words: "The New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children is a 'charitable institution' so far as it feeds, clothes and assists children and destitute families and furnishes them with medical aid and attendance and as such is subject to the visitation and inspection of the State Board of Charities."

During the progress of this litigation some peculiar provisions of law were brought prominently to the Board's attention and upon some of them it seems opportune to dwell briefly in this connection.

Chapter 559 of the Laws of 1895, known as the Membership Corporations Law, in section 11, provides as follows: "The directors of every membership corporation except a corporation for the prevention of cruelty to children or animals, created under or by a general or special law, shall present at its annual meeting, a report, verified by the president and treasurer, or by a majority of the directors, showing the whole amount of real and personal property owned by it, where located and where and how invested, the amount and nature of the property acquired during the year immediately preceding the date of the report and the manner of its acquisition; the amount applied, appropriated or expended during the year immediately preceding such date, and the purposes, objects or persons to or for which such applications, appropriations or expenditures have been made, and the names and places of residence of the persons who have been admitted to membership in the corporation during such year, which report shall be filed with the records of the corporation and an abstract thereof entered in the minutes of the proceedings of the annual meeting."

"The directors of every membership corporation, except a society for the prevention of cruelty to children or animals, shall be jointly and severally liable for any debt of the corporation contracted while they are directors, payable within one year or less from the date it was contracted, if an action for the collection thereof be brought against the corporation within one year after the debt becomes due, and an execution issued therein to the county where the office is, or where a certificate of its incorporation is filed, be

returned wholly or partly unsatisfied, and if the action against the directors to recover the amount unsatisfied be commenced within one year after the return of such execution."

Section 16 of the same act, in its opening sentence reads as follows: "All membership corporations, except a corporation for the prevention of cruelty to children or animals, with their books and vouchers shall be subject to the visitation and inspection of a justice of the Supreme Court, or any person appointed by the court for that purpose."

It is not easy to understand why, if these provisions of law are good in their application to other membership corporations, they should not be equally good in their application to the societies thus excepted from them, and it is especially difficult to comprehend why the justices of the Supreme Court should be prohibited from examining into the operations of such societies.

The establishment and incorporation of charitable institutions are sanctioned by the State in order that such organizations may be suitably equipped to render what is distinctly a quasi public service. It cannot be contemplated that these corporate bodies which have been called into being by the State, shall have any. thing to conceal from the State or its duly chosen agents. If so they become superior to the State and the precedent for an intolerable condition of affairs is established.

NUMBER AND CLASSIFICATION OF BENEFICIARIES IN INSTITUTIONS SUBJECT TO THE SUPERVISION OF THE BOARD,

The State Charities Law presupposes that all the charitable institutions, societies and associations in this State, whether incorporated or not incorporated, are in the habit of keeping careful and accurate accounts in detail of their receipts and expenditures, and of their beneficiaries also, for it directs the Board to obtain from all such organizations statistical information which can be furnished only when records are so kept.

Such account keeping, however, the Board regrets to say, seems to be a burden to some of the officers of these institutions, for although the statistics requested by the Board are simple in their nature, much correspondence is required in frequent instances, and apparently also a considerable

amount of computation on the part of such officers, to secure the desired data. In many cases the reports, upon being examined, are found to be incorrect, rendering further correspondence necessary, so that hundreds of letters have to be written each year